Letter to the Editor: Writer about God serves good purpose

I wanted to write these few words for a while now but I always postponed it. I want to personally thank (Phil Patti) for the articles that you weekly write and are published in the Clifton Journal. Your articles are to me a constant reminder of how good and how merciful God is to all of us.

I checked the dictionary for a definition of the word tyrant used by (Patti last week). Tyrant- a ruler who exercises power in a harsh, cruel manner; a person exercising power or control in a cruel, unreasonable or arbitrary way.

Is God a merciless tyrant?

A tyrant will mercilessly crush anyone who dares to disagree with his will or publically speak against him.

God cannot be a merciless tyrant if he allows people to say all kind of evil things against him and go unpunished.

A tyrant takes away freedom from people and keeps them in bondage.

God cannot be a merciless tyrant since he created us and given us the ability to make our own decision. He doesn't force his will on anyone. He has given us the free will to accept him or reject him, to obey or disobey his commandments. The sad reality is that more often than not others must face the terrible consequences and their lives forever changed by the choices we make. The drunken driver who gets behind the wheel impaired and kills innocent people has nothing to do with God. The person who goes out and buys a gun and then uses to kill innocent, precious children and adults has nothing to do with God. Nations who rise against other nations and kill countless number of people has nothing to do with God.

How would you feel if God would stop your hand and prevent you from writing your articles? No he doesn't do it because he has given us the freedom to do as we please. We are to blame for the evil that takes place daily in this world. A tyrant never gives anything to the people upon whom he rules.

God cannot be a tyrant since he gave his only son to die a horrible death so that we can be forgiven of our sins. I have three children and surely wouldn't give any of them to die for evil, cruel, human beings.

A tyrant rules through fear.

I am 56 years old and I have still not met a person who has come to God out of fear. Fear drives us away from God while love drives us near to him.